Public appearances and duties
Elisabeth's first public appearance was on 21 July 2006, when she accompanied her parents during the Te Deum for National Day celebrations at the Cathedral of St. Michael and St. Gudula. The following year, on 13 June 2007, Elisabeth and her parents attended the opening of a new Technopolis youth interactive at Mechelen. In February 2009, Elisabeth gave her name to a Belgian scientific polar research station. She and her father also recorded a video message to support Belgian scientists in Antarctica. In September 2011, Elisabeth gave her first public speech in Dutch at the opening of the Princess Elisabeth Children's Hospital, part of Ghent University Hospital. She gave her first self-written speech on 17 October 2014 during commemorations of the centenary of the outbreak of World War I at Nieuwpoort. Elisabeth read the prayer intentions at her great-aunt Queen Fabiola's funeral in December 2014. She christened the patrol vessel Pollux P902 on 6 May 2015 in Zeebrugge. In April 2019, Elisabeth joined her father King Philippe on a visit to the training center of the Brussels firefighters. She attended the funeral of Grand Duke Jean of Luxembourg in May 2019. In June 2019, Elisabeth and her mother traveled to Kenya on behalf of the United Nations Children's Fund and visited the Kakuma refugee camp.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Elisabeth held conversations over the phone with elderly people in residential care centers in order to give them encouragement and support. On 21 July 2021, she joined fellow students of the Royal Military Academy of Belgium to parade during Belgian National Day. In March 2022, Elisabeth and her parents attended a roundtable discussion about the ramifications of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. On 12 May 2022, Elisabeth accompanied her aunt Princess Astrid on a visit to St Hilda's College, Oxford. There, she and her aunt met St Hilda's Principal Professor Dame Sarah Springman and the Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University Professor Dame Louise Richardson. On 17 June 2022, together with her mother Queen Mathilde, she was among the royal guests invited to the celebrations of the 18th birthday of Princess Ingrid Alexandra of Norway. Elisabeth carried her two first solo official engagements in the following week by christening the Belgian oceanographic research vessel RV Belgica and inaugurating KU Leuven's Princess Elisabeth Additive Manufacturing Lab. In December 2022, Elisabeth and her brother Prince Emmanuel participated in the Warmathon in Brussels.
In March 2023, Elisabeth and her mother Queen Mathilde traveled to Egypt, where they visited archaeological sites. On 5 May 2023, Elisabeth accompanied her father to a reception at Buckingham Palace the evening before the coronation of King Charles III and Queen Camilla of the United Kingdom. In June 2023, she and her father attended the wedding of Crown Prince Hussein of Jordan and Rajwa Al Saif. Elisabeth carried her first solo official trip abroad in October 2023 by attending Prince Christian of Denmark's 18th birthday celebration banquet at Christiansborg Palace, Denmark. In March 2024, she and her father King Philippe received the former U.S. President Barack Obama at the Castle of Laeken. In June 2024, Elisabeth and her siblings voted for the regional, federal and European elections. In October 2025, Elisabeth accompanied her parents to events surrounding the abdication of Henri, Grand Duke of Luxembourg, and the enthronement of his son Guillaume V.
In 2020 it was reported that Elisabeth volunteered to help children with learning difficulties, the elderly, the homeless and disabled people.
